Sustainable land use

We all live on one planet. As pressures on the environment mount, great efforts are being made to manage land and other resources with care. Specialists at CSL are employing many diverse sciences to provide understanding and insight to improve the sustainable use of land and to smooth the interface between human development and wildlife.

Optimising inputs of crop protection chemicals is key to reducing the environmental impact of farming. Based on a combination of in-depth knowledge of disease epidemiology, and access to national weather data, CSL scientists have produced on-line risk assessment information to help farmers improve spray decisions. Along similar lines, long-terms studies of insect population dynamics in the margins of arable fields has led to practical insights into the pest-controlling impact of beneficial species. Forecasting and risk assessment are essential tools to help farmers manage pests and diseases more effectively.

As a society we are beginning to look much more closely at the useful materials and novel chemicals that can be obtained from renewable resources such as plants and from plant-based waste materials. This is the process of bio-refining. CSL plays an active part in the UK's drive to identify useful materials in biomass, focusing on the analytical chemistry, the economics and the land-use implications of novel crops.

Major developments such as airfields, quarries and windfarms can have large impacts on wildlife. By using our knowledge of the behaviour of birds and animals, our specialists contribute to environmental impact assessments for construction projects around the world. We own and operate the only two mobile bird detecting radars available for civilian use in the UK, which allow us to produce unrivalled data on bird movements around, for example, proposed sites for wind farms.